This is The Best Thing

Emma was in the hands of the most dangerous man in the Lore. Scared as hell, her flight instincts took over. She opened the carriage door and jumped out. There was mayhem everywhere. She looked to her right and then left. Without thinking for a second, Emma started to run towards the darkness beyond in the opposite direction, taking cover of the snow-covered trees.

Emma ran as fast as possible in the opposite direction. She didn't have much of a plan and had very limited knowledge of these areas, but she knew that if she traveled in the opposite direction, it would lead her back to her home. A layer of snow crunched beneath her feet as she darted towards the forest that surrounded the dirt path on which the carriage stopped.

Her breath came out in puffs and misty clouds gathered in front of her. "Help me goddess," she muttered when she heard the grunts of beasts. She had never been on this side of the kingdom. She didn't know how far she had run, but only when the silvery moonlight shattered and was enough to show her the path, she realized that she had come deep in the forest. She heard a howl in the distance, which only made her run fast. All Emma wanted was to maintain as much distance as possible between her and the vampire.

Everyone in her village said that vampires were dangerous, driven by blood lust and blood rage. Emma's parents were blood vassals in the kingdom of Wilyra, because the vampires had allowed them to stay in Wilyra, but only if they gave their blood in exchange for protection.

Emma couldn't help wondering if her father would suppress the rebellion after this deal. Drogo was the leader of all the vassals and currently there was a dissent amongst them. They were grouping up and rebelling against the royals to not give their blood anymore and take up the kingdom of Wilyra.

Emma's boot snagged on an exposed boulder and she fell down hard, but immediately she was back on her feet with a few scars and a tear in her gown. She ran until the side of her stomach developed a stitch. She was sure that she had come closer to her home. The trees were less dense leaving a vast expanse of snow-covered ground.

Her breath was labored and her pace slower. All she hoped at that time was that she didn't encounter any wolves or bears. However, with her terrible luck these days, she wasn't even sure of it. It was highly possible that she was running towards a large family of very bad-tempered wolves. She had never seen wolves, only heard their howls. But at least—

A branch snapped and Emma held her breath. She ran towards a thicket of pine trees as her skin prickled with goosebumps. The cracking sound came closer and she sprinted harder, but the next moment, a sudden force came in front of her and she dashed straight into the hard and muscular wall of someone. She shrieked as she fell down but strong arms grabbed her waist and prevented her fall.

"Where were you going?" Prince Lazarus growled menacingly. "You think you can escape me?"

His cold voice sent a shiver down her spine. Her heart sank all the way down to her toes as she looked up at the tall vampire whose muscles were bulging and rippling beneath her touch.

"Let me go," she said, fear threatening to throw her food out of her gut. Her struggles were a losing battle against him.

"Never!" he growled. He bent down, grasped her thighs and hauled her over his shoulder. And the next moment, Emma saw smoke and shadows and mist all around her. The wind knocked from her as a splitting headache rips through her skull. Her world spun. Her shoulders popped with a quick jerking motion. And when all of it settled, she found herself being tossed on the bench in the carriage.

Emma peeled open her eyes, her mind trying to come out of the dizziness. And right in front of her was Lazarus who was towering over her. Shocked that it had taken her so long to run away, and merely a few seconds to come back, she let out a ragged breath, as she scrambled back to the bench.

The prince's shirt was stained with blood and pieces of flesh and so were his nails. Yet he cut a striking figure, silhouetted against the soft moonlight that filtered through the window of the carriage.

"You can't run, Emma," he growled, his voice so husky and low and dangerous that she trembled. "And you can never outrun me!" He thumped the side of the carriage and it started moving, this time at a higher speed. He settled in the bench opposite to her as he stared at her with his red eyes. "Next time, I will just put a shackle on you!"

Emma trembled under his gaze as her anger and helplessness and confusion warred inside her. How did she come back in the carriage so soon? She scurried away, trying to merge with the farthest corner, away from him. "How did you manage to— to—"

"Some of us can parthon. An ability to trace from one place to another in seconds!"

Anger won. "You shouldn't be doing that to me! This is all wrong," she squeaked. "My father— he is the leader of the rebellion! He has made the wrong decision."

"No, this is the best thing your father could do!" he snapped.

"You royals have been using us for centuries. It is time that you free all of us!" she protested in a weak voice.

"The only way to free yourselves from us is to get out of Wilyra and never come back!" He scoffed and crossed his arms across his chest after wiping his hands on his pants. "You should have told this to Lord Drogo, the man who is leading the rebellion. But he is such a hypocrite that to save his son, he made a secret deal with me in which he handed over his daughter to me in exchange for the costliest medicine available in all of Wilyra along with a promise that he would quash the rebellion!"

She didn't know how to counteract the bitter truth the prince had just lashed out. Emma's chin trembled as fresh tears came in her eyes. She looked away from him outside the window where the snow forest was passing in a blur. This was true. Her father did sell her. To save his son, he threw his daughter in the lair of vampires. But there was more.